Cooking adventures and recipe archives of a home cook in Southern California. I created this blog mostly to share with friends and family, and it includes many recipes for Chinese grub, especially those staples I grew up with as a kid in Taiwan. But as you'll notice, I'm game for any and all cuisines.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Chinese Barbecued Pork in Puff Pastry (Char Siu Sou)

Most people know Char Siu as a dim sum staple in the form of steamed buns stuffed with Chinese barbecued pork in a savory oyster-hoisin sauce filling. Char Siu Sou is basically the same filling but in a flaky pastry dough that's baked. A tried and true shortcut (I didn't invent this) that circumvents the laborious process of making your own flaky pastry dough is using those puff pastry sheets that are readily available in the freezer section of your local supermarket. For this recipe, I used my own homemade Char Siu pork (link below), but feel free to sub with store bought. The unbaked filled pastries can be frozen and then reheated in a snap.

6. Remove the defrosted puff pastry sheets from their wrappers and cut each into 4 equal squares. Since each box has 2 pastry sheets, so you will end up with a total of 16 squares.

7. Fill each square with about 2 heaping tbsp. of the pork filling, then crimp the edges to seal. Cut off any excess dough on the trip-point edges. Use the tines of a fork to press along the edges of each piece of stuffed pastry.

8. Spray the surface of a cookie/baking sheet with a light layer of PAM or other veggie spray. Place the stuffed pastries about 1" apart on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of each with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown.

Chop the char siu pork into 1/2" dice (this one is home made, but feel free to use store-bought)